Contemporary cognitive science clearly tells us that attention is modulated for speech and action. While these forms of goal-directed attention are very well researched in psychology, they have not been sufficiently studied by epistemologists. In this book, Abrol Fairweather and Carlos Montemayor develop and defend a theory of epistemic achievements that requires the manifestation of cognitive agency. They examine empirical work on the psychology of attention and assertion, and use it to ground a normative theory of epistemic achievements and virtues. The resulting study is the first sustained naturalized virtue epistemology, and will be of interest to readers in epistemology, cognitive science, and beyond.

4/18/17

First Zarri Scholar to pursue doctorate at UCSD

Philosophy M.A. student Jacob Zellmer and first recipient of SF State's new Jason Louis Zarri Memorial Scholarship, has been admitted with generous funding to the Philosophy PhD program at the University of California, San Diego. UCSD is one of the world's leading programs for the study of modern European philosophy, Zellmer's area of specialization.

Visiting Spring 2017 Professor Owen Flanagan will visit several meetings of the graduate seminar PHIL 890 - Moral Possibility, which is centered around subject matter from his new book,The Geography of Morals.

Dr. Anita Silvers Receives CSU Wang Family Excellence Award.

It is with great pleasure that we share the news that our own Dr. Anita Silvers has won the CSU Wang Family Excellence Award, which honors the very best faculty member in each of four areas across the entire 23-campus system. Dr. Silvers is being recognized as the foremost member of the faculty in the visual and performing arts and letters.

This is the very highest CSU-sponsored accolade a faculty member in our system can receive, marking extraordinary distinction not just in scholarship but also in teaching and service to the University and the larger community.

In keeping with the spirit of charity and self-sacrifice for which she is known, Dr. Silvers has decided to use the entirety of the award money and add a substantial amount of her own funds to endow a scholarship for philosophy students.

In recognition of Philosophy Chair Anita Silvers' fine career of service to the university, the Bengier Foundation has generously increased the amount of their undergraduate university scholarships to $3000. Note that one of these scholarships is set aside for an undergraduate Philosophy major!

Congratulations to SFSU MA candidate Kathleen Nicole O'Neal on being named a 2015-2016 Sally Casanova Pre-Doctoral Scholar! Thanks also to her faculty mentor, Dr. Isabelle Peschard, for her sponsorship.

CONGRATULATIONS!

On August 7th, 2015, SFSU MA candidate Ashlie Meredith presented her paper entitled "The Pitfalls of Contempt in Liberatory Struggles" on the main program for the 8th Annual Rocky Mountain Ethics Congress at CU Boulder.

November 14, 2014
A group of San Francisco high school students will wrestle with tricky ethical questions during a competition this January, with help from SF State philosophers.

Seven graduate philosophy students are serving as coaches for high schoolers at San Francisco's School of the Arts and the Academy of Arts and Sciences who will be competing in the High School Ethics Bowl next January. This is the second year SF State students have been involved in the competition.

"I have never seen people so interested in these questions before," said Matt Howery, one of the coaches and the SF State outreach coordinator for the National High School Ethics Bowl. "Especially in San Francisco, teenagers are passionate social justice ninjas. These are things they care about." Last year, Howery's team made it all the way to the regional semifinals, an impressive achievement for a public school with fewer resources than many of its competitors.

For the SF State students, Howery added, giving back to the community in this manner is a natural and important part of what they do as philosophers.

"A philosopher is a teacher," he said. "Philosophy is teaching. It's not a field that exists if no one is sharing information. Anytime we are engaging people, especially people who are not philosophers, we are engaging in an art that is thousands of years old."

The seven coaches are supervising six teams of five students each, working with them for a few hours each month to teach them how to develop arguments and engage others in collaborative debate -- the criteria by which they will be scored during the competition. The regional competition in January will be held at University of California, Santa Cruz, with the winner advancing to the National High School Ethics Bowl in North Carolina. Topics will include whether it is okay for a country such as Brazil to spend billions hosting the World Cup while many of its citizens are starving and whether photoshopping magazine models is ever appropriate.

"I've been pleasantly surprised at how quickly the students take to philosophical arguments, the kinds of objections that they raise and their philosophical development," said Ashlie Meredith, a graduate student and coach. "Watching that has really cultivated a passion in me for bringing philosophy to young people. It's important to foster their critical thinking skills so they can learn how to develop their own opinions and become informed citizens."

The SF State students' involvement is essential because it provides the high school students with a historical and academic context for the skills they are learning, said Jerry Pannone, a retired teacher and the ethics bowl coordinator at the two high schools.

"That is really enlightening to the kids, to see that these are very well-founded ethical theories that can also be in conflict with each other," Pannone said. "The SF State students can elucidate that for them and show them the classical development of an argument where you have two or three premises and a conclusion. That is excellent for students to learn."